Autobahn

“If you think Neil LaBute puts only broad, deliberately provocative acts of cruelty onstage, check out this fragile, achingly intimate 2004 work. In seven short two-person plays, each taking place in a car, he investigates moments of harrowing revelation: a freshly detoxed woman calculatedly admitting to her mother she “can’t wait” to use again, a wife hinting to her husband that her reported sexual assault was consensual, a teacher asking to stroke his 15-year-old student’s hair while she naps. When LaBute’s characters aren’t aggressively suppressing their anguish, they’re nurturing it for selfish ends. It’s a psychologically complex evening, and director Aaron Henrickson’s discriminating, understated cast tease out every nuance. Nearly everything in this two-hour Fairlane Theatre production falls gracefully in place.”